> Probably should have spent another 3-5 years getting the first release in better shape instead of spending 3-5 years flinging flaming turds to the paying customers.
I wonder if the company would have had the money to pay salaries for 3 years, unless for those "paying customers" that obviously started paying much earlier than that.
And
> The executives slowly released they inexplicably lost half the business compared to the previous generation as upstart competitors stole their market share.
s/released/realized/ ? Exactly one of my worries. Maybe they could have created those competitors themselves. Two brands, one for the original product and one for a product with a somewhat different layout and all the improvements that they did not dare to add the the original product. But then you need a third brand, a fourth one, etc.